In This Firelight
by oppugnorhr12
Summary: What really did happen the night before Harry woke up to find Ron and Hermione's hands inches away from each other? DH missing moment  before the beginning of Chapter 10: Kreacher's Tale .


DH missing moment.

"_Harry glanced over at the dark shapes they made on the floor beside him. Ron had had a fit of gallantry and insisted that Hermione sleep on the cushions from the sofa, so that her silhouette was raised above his. Her arm curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Ron's. Harry wondered whether they had fallen asleep holding hands."_

—Chapter 10: Kreacher's Tale, Deathly Hallows

Hermione entered the drawing room, now wearing her pyjamas, holding her toothbrush on one hand and a small towel on the other. Against the firelight, she saw Ron moving the cushions from the sofa to the floor. She strode over to one of the chairs where her handbag sat, and stuffed her towel and toothbrush inside.

"That's pretty clever of you, Ron, using the cushions from the sofa to sleep on," Hermione said, grinning, walking over to where Ron was. "Wish I'd have thought of that sooner."

Ron shrugged, smirking, and started to push the cushions together side by side, to form a sort of mattress.

Hermione grabbed one of the blankets and one of the pillows they brought with them and spread the blanket out onto the carpeted floor beside Ron's cushions.

"What are you doing?" asked Ron, taking his blanket, which was still folded, and dropping it onto the cushions, beside the pillow that he had placed there.

Hermione sat down on her blanket, fixing her pillow on one end. "Getting ready for bed."

"That's not your bed." Ron said, stepping towards where she sat.

Hermione looked up at him, eyebrows raised. "Yes it is, I made it myself."

"Good night guys," Harry called from his own blanket, apparently wanting to escape the bickering they were beginning to have.

"Good night," Ron and Hermione said at the same time, as they watched Harry take off his glasses and lie down facing the other direction.

"Get up, Hermione, that's my bed," Ron said, grabbing her arm.

"Wha—?" Hermione shrieked, as Ron pulled her to her feet.

Ron pointed to his cushions as he sat down on Hermione's blanket that he now claimed as his own. "I made that bed for you," he mumbled, not looking her in the eye and absentmindedly fluffing up his pillow.

Hermione felt her face grow warmer. "Ron—"

"Come off it, Hermione, we both know I won't allow you to sleep anywhere else." Ron said, now partly lying down, with his upper body still raised, supported by his arms.

"I was just going to say thanks," Hermione said faintly, sitting down on the cushions, taking the blanket Ron had lain down for her.

"Oh," Ron said, his ears turning slightly pink. "You're welcome, then."

Hermione smiled at him, spread out the blanket and lay down underneath it, facing the ceiling. From the corner of her eye, she saw Ron lie down as well. She stared at the ceiling, thinking of all the things they still had to do, and how dangerous this journey was going to be. She clutched the blanket to her chest, anxious for what was coming. She closed her eyes shut and tried her best to free her mind of all thoughts and fall asleep, but she couldn't.

"Hermione," she heard Ron whisper beside her.

She opened her eyes and turned her head to face him. He was now propped on one elbow, facing her.

"Are you asleep?" he asked quietly, so as not to wake Harry, who was now snoring at Hermione's other side.

"Obviously not, if I'm here talking to you," she whispered back, rolling her eyes at him. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I can't fall asleep. Too many things in my head."

Hermione smiled weakly and rolled to her side, her head still resting on her pillow, facing him. "Me too."

Ron sighed and laid his head back down, still facing her. "You reckon we'll find all the horcruxes?"

"I don't know," Hermione replied, biting her lower lip. "I hope we do, though, and get to destroy them in the end."

Ron frowned. "And we still have no idea how we'll go about destroying them either."

Hermione heaved a deep sigh. She reached out and traced the patterns on the carpet with her finger, racking her brain for any clue on the destruction of horcruxes. Although the books she had managed to retrieve from Dumbledore's office had helped immensely, she still had no clue where to find tools with which the horcruxes could be completely destroyed.

"You have brown eyes," said Ron suddenly, making Hermione jump.

She saw him staring at her. "Er—yes." Hermione replied, puzzled. She was sure that Ron already knew of this fact. After all, they have been friends for 6 years now. Surely, he had seen her eyes before?

"In this firelight," Ron muttered, almost inaudibly, "they—they look...nice." He said, quickly tearing his gaze off Hermione and staring at the carpet instead, blushing slightly.

Hermione felt her heart skip a beat. "T-thank you," she said, turning pink.

Ron looked back up at her and his mouth curved into an awkward smile.

She grinned back. For a moment, all thoughts of destroying horcruxes and defeating Voldemort fled her mind. She stared into his blue eyes, and wondered how it was that she easily felt safe in them. Her eyes travelled down to his freckled nose, smiling at the fact that she found his freckles most adorable. She then studied his lips, and noticed how soft they seemed. She wondered how it would feel like to—she gasped and averted her eyes to the carpet, embarrassed for even thinking what she had just thought.

"You okay?" Ron asked.

Hermione looked back up and saw Ron watching her still. Had he been staring at her face this whole time too?

"Yeah," Hermione said, hastily. "I just... thought of something."

"Oh," Ron said, still not taking his eyes off her.

Hermione felt her face burn under his gaze, and decided to look at her hand, which now lay still on the carpet, instead.

Ron stretched and stifled a yawn.

"Getting sleepy?" Hermione asked, glancing up at him.

"A bit," he said, replacing his hand on the carpet, the tip of his smallest finger now touching Hermione's.

Hermione looked down at their hands, feeling shivers down her spine at the sight of Ron's finger leaning against hers. She tried her best to suppress a grin that wanted so terribly to form on her lips.

She decided to look away and focus on the tip of her blanket instead.

She felt Ron's smallest finger stir. She was afraid that he had noticed their fingers brushing against each other, and would now want to pull away.

But he didn't pull away. Instead, she felt his finger slowly creep up and entwine over her smallest finger.

Hermione's heart thumped loudly against her chest. She glanced up at Ron, whose ears had gone crimson, but who was avoiding her gaze.

She then felt his hand now slowly cover her whole hand. Her heart raced even faster and she was finding it difficult to breathe.

_His hand is on top of mine. He put his hand on top of mine. __We are sort of holding hands._

She racked her brain on what she ought to do. Should she remain still? Will that make him understand that she didn't want him to remove his hand? Or will that give him the impression that she did not want his hand to be there? Maybe it was the latter. Maybe she had to do something to make him know that this was okay.

Trembling, she slowly upturned her hand and gently closed it upon his. She quickly looked up at him, watching for his response, nervous that he won't agree with her actions.

Ron glanced at their hands and then at her. "Are you... comfortable?" he asked, cautiously.

Hermione nodded, grinning sheepishly.

Ron gave a sigh of relief and grinned back, gently squeezing her hand and rubbing his thumb against hers.

Hermione felt as though her rib cage would explode with the way her heart was behaving. She had never felt this wonderful before.

Ron cleared his throat, raised his hand, which was still in hers, and brushed the side of her face with the back of his hand. Hermione felt the part where he brushed burn under his touch. She merely stared at him, wondering if all of this was real. Was this really the same Ron who seemed to find the most joy in arguing with her? He definitely didn't seem to want to have a row now. She was actually a bit uncertain on what he was doing, but she loved every bit of it anyway.

"You're beautiful, Hermione," Ron said, replacing their hands on the carpet, his ears and cheeks turning red.

Hermione's jaw dropped quite a bit as she blinked at his words. "Thanks," she said feebly, seriously considering that this may just be a dream, but certainly hoping that it was not. She was convinced that she could not be any happier than she was.

She was wrong.

After a moment of staring at each other, grinning and laughing silently at nothing in particular, she felt Ron part her fingers and slip his fingers in between, entwining their hands together.

She gasped as a new wave of thrill dominated her body, and she wondered if her heart was still alive.

Ron looked worried, taking her sudden intake of breath as a negative sign. "Is—is this still... okay?" he asked slowly, his voice cracking.

"Yes," Hermione said, a bit too quickly. "Yes, it's... it's okay," she said, a bit more calmly, smiling weakly.

Ron smiled back, clasping Hermione's hand a little more tightly.

Hermione sighed happily. Every time she glanced down at their hands together, her heart did somersaults in her chest.

"We better go to sleep," Ron said, stifling another yawn.

"Yeah," Hermione replied, now noticing how tired her eyes were beginning to be.

Ron began to pull his hand away and face the other direction.

A small whimper left Hermione's lips, as she refused to let go of Ron's hand.

Ron turned back to look at her, raising his eyebrows. "Is everything okay?"

Hermione turned faintly pink. "I just...I'm...scared," she lied.

"Scared?" Ron echoed, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I mean, with all the—the dangers and Death Eaters that we encountered... and the—the possibility of having more of them appear in—in the middle of the night..." she stammered, not really knowing what she was saying, "I just—well—I feel... safer... when you're—" she paused, turning into a deeper shade of red, "h-holding my hand," she said the last words in a faint whisper.

Ron's ears turned crimson as well. His mouth formed a small smile and he nodded, lying back down on his pillow, not removing his hand from Hermione's.

Hermione smiled and closed her eyes, still feeling Ron's fingers interlaced with hers. She no longer worried about their long journey ahead nor the dangers that await them, because she knew that Ron would be there and that alone made everything else okay.

A/N: Reviews would be highly appreciated! Thank you!


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